The Emory University baseball team continued to fire on all cylinders Saturday afternoon, pouring in 31 runs across 14 innings as the Eagles collected a pair of mercy-rule wins over Middlebury College at Chappell Park in Atlanta.
Seniors Jack Halloran and Matthew Sicoli and sophomore Aidan Conley combined to drive in 11 runs in the series opener to help support junior Josh Zuckerman's outing on the mound as the Eagles won by 14. In the second game of the twinbill, senior Ryan Reynolds had his best performance on the mound so far this season and was backed by Emory's fourth straight double-digit effort at the plate.
Game 1: Emory 19, Middlebury 5 (7 innings)
The Eagles offense scored in five of the six innings including 18 times during the first four frames en route to their first run rule win of the afternoon.
Emory scored three times in both the first and second innings highlighted by a two-run double by Sicoli in the home half of the first and a two-run double by Conley in the second.
The Eagles did not let their feet off the gas pedal in the third and fourth frames as Emory batted around the lineup both times at the dish to push across 12 more runs.
In the third, 10 batters came to the plate as the Eagles scored six times and were aided by the help of three Middlebury errors. Conley and senior Blake Dincman both recorded run-scoring singles and Halloran smacked a two-run double of his own to pad the scoring.
In the fourth, 12 hitters stepped into the box as Emory plated six more runs. Sophomore Jake Lawson and Dincman provided base hits to record RBIs and junior Zach Wasserlauf and sophomore Mitchell Smallwood worked bases loaded walks.
The 18 runs of support led Zuckerman to pick up his second win of the season. He worked five innings and gave up three earned runs on four hits and five walks while striking out three. Sophomore Mihir Patel worked two scoreless innings of relief to close out the win.
With the win secured, Halloran tacked on the final run for the Eagles in the sixth as he launched his third home run of the season with a deep drive to left.
Game 2: Emory 12, Middlebury 2 (7 innings)
All nine members of the starting lineup registered at least one base hit with seven different Eagles coming across home plate as Emory used a well-balanced offensive attack to earn its second mercy rule win of the day.
Once again the Eagles scored early and often as the Blue & Gold struck for six runs through the opening three frames.
After seeing the Panthers take a 1-0 lead in the visitor half of the second, sophomore Zach Hanson put the Eagles in front with his two-run single in the bottom half of the inning.
In the third, Emory extended its lead to 6-1 with a four spot with the big hit in the frame coming from senior Jonah Wronski and his two-run double to plate Wasserlauf and classmate Brok Liu.
The Eagles were held scoreless for the next two innings before putting up another crooked number in the sixth to put the game into mercy rule territory. Dincman added another two-run double in the inning with Halloran collecting another RBI with a single.
Halloran provided the game-clinching hit in the seventh inning as after Conley and junior Reeve Walden got on base via a hit-by-pitch and a walk, Halloran lifted a single to left center to score Conley with the team's 12th run and thus ending the game with the 10-run margin.
With the offensive outburst, Reynolds earned his first win on the bump as he worked six strong innings. He allowed just two runs on six hits and one walk to go along with five strikeouts.
The Eagles will go for the series sweep on Sunday as the finale is scheduled to get underway at 10:30 AM at Chappell Park.
